The interpretation timeline

1Cor 14:39

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Methodist · 1 Reformed

1Cor 14:39 · Douay-Rheims
“Wherefore, brethren, be zealous to prophesy; and forbid not to speak with tongues.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
407
A.D.
John Chrysostom Patristic
A.D. 347–407
“Then, as he is ever wont to do, unto the former subject whence he digressed to say these things, he brings back his discourse as follows: "Wherefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues." For this too is his wont, not only to work out what is before him, but also starting from that to set right whatever seems to him in any way akin to it, and again to return to the former, so as not to appear to wander from the subject. For so when he was discoursing of their concord in their banquets, he digressed to their Communion in the Mysteries, and having thence put them to shame, he returns again to the former, saying, "Wherefore, when ye come together to eat, wait one for another." (1 Cor. 11:33) And here, accordingly, having discoursed of good order in their gifts, and of its being a duty neither to faint in the lesser, nor to be puffed up on account of the greater; then having made an excursion from thence to the sobriety becoming women and having established it, he returns again to his subject, saying, "Wherefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues." Seest thou how to the end he preserved the difference of these? And how he signifies that the one is very necessary, the other not so? Wherefore of the one he saith, "desire earnestly," but of the other, "forbid not."”
Source
1,425 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1832
A.D.
Adam Clarke Methodist
1762–1832
“Covet to prophesy - Let it be your endeavor and prayer to be able to teach the way of God to the ignorant; this is the most valuable, because the most useful gift of the Spirit. And forbid not to speak with tongues - Let every gift have its own place and operation; let none envy another; nor prevent him from doing that part of the work to which God, by giving the qualification, has evidently called him.”
Source
1871
A.D.
1871
“covet--earnestly desire. Stronger than "forbid not"; marking how much higher he esteemed "prophecy" than "tongues."”
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.